In the library at the Scarlet Devil Mansion, danmaku flies all around.
Powerful shots impact everywhere, leaving black spots all around except on the books.
Patchouli and Ail stop for a moment, and then the boy asks "hey, aren't you worried about all these books?"
Patchouli calmly replies "very nice of you to worry, but you see all my books are magically protected, so there's no need to worry. Shall we continue?"
Ail nods with a smirk on his face, and then Patchouli pulls out a Spell Card from inside the book she is holding; and this time Ail is able to see it clearly.
"Sun Sign, Royal Flare!" declares Patchouli.
Suddenly large red danmaku orbs materialize between her and the boy.
The bullets move in a circular motion, making Ail have to dodge with great care as the shots intertwine and spread a lot.
"No bad" says Ail. "I guess I'll have to focus a little more."
He begins to shoot those orange danmaku balls that explode on impact straight at Patchouli, then suddenly one of her red bullets lands right on his face, however he is just fine.
"What the hell? I barely even felt that," exclaims Ail while looking surprised.
Patchouli sighs softly, then says "that's because I missed your hit box."
When Ail looks at his stomach there's a reddish ball there. He looks back at Patchouli looking both surprised and scared, and then she says "yours is almost as small as Reimu's. This will be tough."
Again, Ail looks shocked and a little scared, but the battle continues until the first spell card times out.
There is a glint in Patchouli's eyes as she takes out the second Spell Card and says "my improvement is evident, however your improvements is also quite evident."
Ail smiles and bows as he thanks Patchouli, and then she continues saying "however I am not done yet...Five Elements Sign, Philosopher's Stone"
Five books materialize around the magician, each shooting danmaku of a different element: water, fire, wind, nature, and metal; and each book shoot the bullets in its own pattern.
Ail is grazed a lot of times but he keeps shooting his danmaku at her, clearing her spell card just as the very last wave of bullets completely surrounds him.
"Phew" exclaims the boy, "that was too close for comfort."
Showing no emotion at all, like always, Patchouli takes out her last Spell Card of the match and says "this... I trained very hard to perfect this. Let's test this against the real thing. Metal and Fire Sign, Dragon's Last Breath!"
On her left hand she holds an enormous metal blade, and on her right one a fire blade of the same size.
She brings them both together and forms a spiritual dragon made of metal and flames.
The dragon's body disappears, leaving only the neck and head roaring at Ail.
He gasps as he backs away; looking quite frightened.
The dragon's head shoot metals spikes at him, while from the neck small fire blades and crystals fly out spinning, generating more crystals that home in on the targeted boy.
Sakuya keeps watching the fight until she notices Meiling hiding beside Koakuma behind one of the bookshelves while watching the fight as well.
Sakuya is amazed that Meiling looks just like her old self again and eventually smiles to herself and thinks "I never thought I'd see Meiling again. It also seems lady Patchouli is coming back to us. The kid is really doing it. Now all that's left is Flandre."
Sakuya leaves the room in an instant and heads to Flandre's room, opens all the locks, smiles, and then she hides herself in the darkest corner she can find.
Back at the village Kyo is a little drunk.
He has taken off both of his shirts and is flexing his muscles every time he accomplishes even the tiniest request.
Somehow, Mystia, who is putting bandages on Rumia, can't take her eyes off Kyo for a second and blushes occasionally when she gets too caught up on his flexing.
She isn't the only one as Mokou, who hides behind a house, keeps staring at Kyo without blinking once while her cheeks turn pink.
In the meantime Reimu hides inside Keine's school, looking pale and scared of going out while saying "he's gone overboard again."
Keine smiles and says "don't worry, I exchanged Suika's gourd for one full of water."
Reimu looks at Keine a little worried and asks "but what if they find out?"
Keine giggles and says "we run and pretend we don't know them;" and then she winks.
Reimu smiles, but just then Suika enters the school looking angry while sniffing around.
She finds her gourd and places the fake one right on Keine's desk while the teacher tries to smile, however Suika's eyes glow red and are filled with fire, making Keine gulp and lower her head.
Suika takes a swig from her gourd, leaves, and then Reimu says "to the shrine?"
"Right behind you" immediately says Keine before following Reimu out a window and to the shrine.
Back at the mansion's library, Ail is having a very hard time dodging all those bullets flying at him.
His face is cut and singed and his shirt is a bit tattered, but he keeps on fighting.
Suddenly, Patchouli starts coughing and collapses, letting out a pitiful "mukyu~;" however the dragon's head continued to attack; now more violently.
"Crap, she lost control... no matter. Now it's my turn then."
Aiming for the dragon's head, Ail shoots his focused shots and weakens it considerably.
Koakuma panics and flies rapidly to her collapsed mistress, and then gets her away to safety alongside her and Meiling, who offers them popcorn after they hide behind the bookshelf again.
Ail dodges the dragon's head bullets as best as he can, and manages to weaken it some more.
One last focused shot and the dragon's head makes it vanish into thin air, but not before nailing Ail on the arm with one of its metal spikes just before it disappears.
"Dammit! That hurts" shouts Ail as he pulls the metal spike out of his arm.
He heads to where Koakuma, Meiling and Patchouli are, and even though she's little dazed, Patchouli manages to sit and say "I guess I still need to learn to control that one. And at least you managed beat it."
As she says this, Ail extends his hand to her to help her up.
"That was just awesome," exclaimed Ail, ignoring the pain from his small wound.
"That last spell card... how could you summon something so fierce and manage to keep control that long?" he finishes asking.
Meiling grabs Patchouli from behind and with a smile she says "because she is Patchouli Knowledge."
After restoring the library Patchouli sits by her desk says "and so you beat me, and without having to use any Spell Cards. I am impressed, and I am glad to know you really are that strong."
Ail and Meiling both look rather confused at each other, then back at Patchouli who explains "when you came by last time I saw you as a mere human with admirable powers, however your power was nowhere near my own, and yet I couldn't take down your barriers. This battle has proven those barriers were no fluke, that you really are that strong, and for that I am grateful."
Ail smiles at Patchouli and says "I understand now. But why were you locking yourself up like that? Remilia has been really worried."
Patchouli's eyes reveal her sudden realization that she hasn't seen Remilia for almost a month. She then uses magic to restore Ail's clothes and heal his wounds.
Ail smiles widely while saying "maybe I should learn that spell."
He then bows his head to Patchouli and says "you better go to Remilia and let her know you are ok now."
As he turns around to leave, Meiling trails behind, saying "you're still under my watch, mister!"
Outside the mansion, a bandaged little black ball is flying aimlessly as she says the familiar "is that so~!?"
At the one of the doors of the basement's corridor, a little blonde vampire peeks her head outside of her room.
"Oh no... it's that same feeling again... and the door's open... what should I do?" Flandre speaks to herself with fright, before quickly shutting the door when she hears some voices.
She then hides under her bed holding a tattered teddy bear that's losing its stuffing as tightly as she can.
"I just don't understand, why exactly did you attack Flan like that last time?" asks Meiling,
Ail sighs and responds "I was being controlled. It was a sneaky spirit that was hiding inside me. It tried to kill Flandre when I got too weak to control it."
"Ohh, I see. Well, you're still in hot water, so you best behave when we get there" scolds the gate guard.
Arriving at Flandre's door Meiling opens it and, to her surprise, all the locks are already opened.
"Oh my, the locks are all open..." says Meiling as she enters the room while softly calling "little sister...? Flan, are you here?"
Flandre peeks from under her bed, and when she sees Meiling she jumps from under the bed and straight on to Meiling, making a loud cracking sound as she lands hard on the redhead.
Ail hears the sound and covers his eyes, thinking Meiling has just been split in half by the force of the impact; however she is fine, and is hugging Flandre back.
"Flan" says Meiling "you have a visitor I want you to meet. You can come in now!"
When Ail slowly reveals himself Flandre remembers everything that had happened during his last visit.
She starts to hyperventilate and holds tightly to Meiling while trying to bury her face on the guard's chest.
Ail looked down with sadness as Meiling comforts the blonde vampire. "Don't worry, this time I am here. He won't harm you."
Slowly, Flandre lets go of Meiling as she is put back on the floor.
Ail kneels and offers his hand to Flandre. She looks at his eyes, frightened at first, then very suspicious.
She slowly approaches the boy and grabs his hand, shutting her eyes tightly and looking away out of fear, but Ail keeps his hand open until Flandre looks back at him.
After she's a little calmer he slowly closes his hand and starts shaking it softly and saying "hello Flandre. My name is Ail... The real Ail that is."
Flan looks back at him and asks "you... you don't want to break me?"
Ail lightly shakes his head, then Flandre smiles weakly, and that's when Sakuya reveals herself right behind the supposedly-hated boy.
"Err... S-sakuya... heh heh. W-What a surprise" says Meiling very nervously.
"Meiling; those replacements you left at the gate just froze a really nasty intruder. I might consider making them permanent replacements" says Sakuya, making Meiling gulp loudly.
Outside, Cirno and Daiyousei have just frozen Aya, and Momiji is pulling the large iced crow tengu away while Cirno says "and don't mess with the strongest again, you hear?"
Daiyousei's eyes sparkle as Cirno poses valiantly. To their right Rumia looks on and asks "is that so~?" and gets frozen immediately, of course.
Back inside, Sakuya places a knife on Ail's neck and says "you sneaked in again and came back to the scene of the crime, just like some common criminal."
She then looks at Flandre and asks "would you like to get rid of him young mistress?"
Flandre looks nervous while she thinks, but then says "no; wait..."
Sakuya smiles and takes the knife off Ail's neck; the boy sighs in relief; then she says "alright, I'll spare him. Besides he's been restoring the mansion to the way it should be. And you, Meiling, were just making sure he behaved, so I'll overlook this negligence this time."
Meiling places her hand on her chest as she sighs with great relief.
Flandre is no longer afraid of Ail and is sitting on his lap quietly as Sakuya and Meiling talk.
"I am so glad to see you back to you old self, Meiling. I really did miss scolding you" says the maid.
Meiling places her left hand behind her head and chuckles as she says "aww, I'm sorry... where did I go again?"
Sakuya smiles and says "the Mistress will be happy to know everything is back to normal."
"Not yet..." interrupts Ail.
When Sakuya and Meiling look at him, then at Flandre, they realize what he means, and then the blonde realizes everyone is looking at her and asks "what? What is it?"
Ail gets her up to her feet, then he gets up and asks her "Flandre? Are you afraid of using your powers?"
Flandre turns her sight away from Ail's and down to the ground then slightly nods.
Ail kneels to look at her straight in the eyes and says "look, what happened last time... you shouldn't be afraid of your powers. You just need to control them, and you should be just fine."
Flandre refuses to raise her cute red eyes and just stands still.
Meiling is about to grab Flandre to cheer her up, however a blue portal opens very suddenly just beside Ail.
All look a bit surprised while Ail peeks his head in, and then pulls it back out.
"It goes to the village" he casually says, then Flandre's face sparkles and her eyes twinkle.
"Well can't you close it?" asks Sakuya, but Ail looks quite puzzled and says "ME!? How can I do that? I don't even know how that opened up in the first place!"
Sakuya looks at him suspiciously and asks "so you don't know?"
Ail looks to the ground then says "look, I don't know HOW I am even doing this... honestly."
While Sakuya and Ail converse, Flan quietly sneaks inside the portal. Meiling notices a bit too late and jumps right in after her and shrieking "Flandre!"
By the time Ail and Sakuya realize this, the portal starts to close, however Ail is quick enough to get in just in time.
Sakuya panics when she hears her mistress' footsteps heading her way, but by the time Remilia arrives, Sakuya is pretending to be cleaning the room.
"Sakuya, where is Flan?" asks the vampire.
Without turning around so that Remilia couldn't see her nervous face, Sakuya says "I'm sorry my lady, but I haven't seen her today."
Remilia looks around and before she leaves she says "well, keep a look-out. There's no telling when that Ail might show up."
"Yes, m'lady" replies Sakuya.
Just as Remilia walks by Patchouli's library, the doors open up.
"Lady Remilia" says Patchouli, "will you come here for a moment? I need to talk to you."
Remilia, looking like a lost child for a moment, nods then heads into the library without question.
At the village, everyone is in complete shock at the sudden appearance of Flandre, Meiling, and then Ail, whom sit on the ground after falling out of the gap.
Flandre stands up and looks around, then notices so many people and youkai in one same place, she panics and begins to shiver; however Meiling gets up just in time for the little blonde to rapidly crash on to her, and so they hold each other tight.
Ail gets up last, then spots Kyo and says "w-we're here~" as Marisa shouts "Flandre? Meiling; what are you two doing here!?"
When Flandre hears Marisa's voice she almost instantly launches towards the witch and knocks her down with a big, bone-crushing hug.
Ail covers his ears while thinking "the pain!"
Marisa's body shakes violently as she pats Flandre on the head and says "he-hello there... F-F-Flan..."
Flandre giggles and calms herself down, then asks "why are there so many people here? Are they playing?"
Kyo gets in front of the awestruck crowd and asks "Ail, what are they doing here?"
Ail is holding his forehead while saying "I am not sure myself, dude."
Meiling looks around and foolishly says "oh, it's a festival!"
Flandre perks up and asks "a festival? What's that?"
Suika walks in and says "WHAAAAT!? You don't know what a festival is!? My name is Suika, and I'll be your festival teacher, now come with me."
"Oh no" shouts Meiling. "You're not getting her out of my sight... does anybody have an umbrella I can borrow?"
Ail is about to accompany them, but Kyo holds him and asks "is everything ok?"
Ail nods and says "this was no accident, I am sure;" then Kyo responds "Keine and Reimu need to talk to you, so before you leave you should go find them."
Ail nods again then follows after Flandre, Suika and Meiling.
Even though Meiling has found an umbrella, she and Ail are surprised to see how resistant to the early noon sun Flandre really is.
Suika takes Flandre to the kiosks while saying "...and this is where people sell foods and other items others might want, like charms, toys, some have games, and others have little shows for children, like Alice over here, who's going to be doing a puppet show."
Flandre's face twinkles as the excitement climbs on her. "Meiling; look, look it's a doll. She looks so cute!" says the childish vampire as she runs towards Alice and Shanghai while pulling the gate guard along with her.
Ail takes this chance and asks "Suika? It's autumn... why are we having a festival?"
Suika takes a good gulp of sake from her gourd and answers very simply "but why not?"
Ail feels as though he's just been defeated, so he stops asking questions.
Flandre and Meiling are asking Alice about her dolls and puppets when one of the dolls falls and rips open.
Witnessing this makes Flandre feel really horrible as the memories of how she used her powers to break her toys and; other things amongst the many; rush right back into the front of her head, and so she almost starts to cry.
Alice notices her and says "don't worry, I can fix it," then she picks up the doll and in just seconds she mends it with amazing skill, making it look just like new, then she shows to Flandre.
It is a really cute doll that looks just like Shanghai, only this one has short blonde hair and wears little glass slippers.
Flandre smiles when looking at it, then asks with concern "can people be fixed like that too?"
Alice sighs and says "no, little one. I'm afraid that people and youkai cannot be fixed so easily then they get hurt."
Flandre drops her head a slight bit, and the worried Meiling asks "little sister? What's wrong?"
"N-Nothing!" replies Flandre, then spots a kiosk of sweets and runs to it; the gate guard trailing along after thanking Alice for her time.
Ail follows them with a stumbling Suika right behind him.
"Excuse me, how much is that sweet potato?" asks Meiling just when Ail catches up.
The woman from the kiosk says "it's 150 yen;" so Meiling takes out the money and pays the woman, and then Ail asks "Ran, is that you?"
Ran smiles and says "why, it's mister Ail. It's been a while, how are you? Who are these?"
Smiling back, Ail says "I'm doing well. This is Meiling Hong, the gatekeeper of the Scarlet Devil Mansion, and this Flandre Scarlet, the mansion owner's little sister."
"Nice to meet you" says Ran while bowing her head and holding her hands together under her sleeves.
From behind her comes Chen who exclaims "Hi~ Ail, how are you?"
Ail smiles "I am well Chen; and why are you in a kiosk?"
Ran chuckles and says "it's good for making a little extra money, plus it helps Chen meet new people."
"I see" says Ail just as Flandre eats the last bite of her sweet potato and flaps her wings contently saying "yumm~! This is good."
Ail smiles and continues "say, have you seen Reimu and Keine? Nobody seems to know where they are."
Ran laughs, and then says "they ran away from Suika and Kyo a little earlier. They said they were heading to the shrine."
"The shrine, I see..." thoughtfully says Ail. "Thanks Ran, I better go there now. Glad to see you and Chen again. Take care"
He then turns to Meiling and Flandre and says "would you like to come with me? I could use the company."
On their way to the shrine they somehow manage to lose Suika; who turned to Kyo and to another drinking challenge; and while walking to the shrine Flandre looks a little sad as she stares to the ground and says "my powers are so scary... I thought I was playing; and I though..."
Meiling tries to say something, but neither she nor Ail can think of anything to say, and so Flandre continues "why didn't they tell me I was hurting them so much? I was having so much fun breaking things, but I never knew how much it hurt; that when they broke they left forever..."
Ail stops, turns to Flandre and holds her shoulders, and then says "you can't be afraid of your powers or they will control you, you understand? You were locked up for 495 years in that room, nobody ever told you anything because you refused to listen. It is not your fault, however."
Flandre looks up at Ail as he continues "you were just having fun, like any child would. But now, Flandre Scarlet, now you have to learn to control those powers. I know they seem scary, but if you can control them, then, and only then will you be able to find your own peace again."
Flandre turns her sight away from Ail's, so then he asks "how about a demonstration of what I mean?"
Ail turns around and with Meiling to his left takes a fighting stance, and in front of them stand two large fox youkai; one glowing yellow, and the other glowing red.
"Look brother. One for each; and a snack to boot!" says the yellow fox youkai.
The red one only snarls, and just before their battle starts Ail says "now watch Flandre, as we use our powers to defend ourselves and those we care about!"
Meiling rushes to the red youkai and kicks it hard, sending it flying toward a tree, and Ail focuses his shots that; although are a little slow; do great damage to the yellow youkai.
Both wild youkai get back up and lunge toward Flandre together, however Ail and Meiling get in their way, and the gate guard sends the yellow youkai back with a hard punch, while Ail blasts the red youkai to the air.
Meiling rushes toward the red youkai and punches and kicks it until it backs away, and Ail stars shooting smaller, but faster bullets as the yellow youkai, then flies towards it and tackles it hard.
Both youkai yelp and run away with their tails between their legs, and this leaves Flandre's eyes widely open as she exclaims "wow... that was SO~ COOL! But why didn't you break them if they were trying to eat us?"
Meiling smiles and says "because we control ourselves in order to avoid unnecessary killing. We can't let our powers control us after all."
Ail then gets closer to Flandre and says "the only reason I would ever 'break' anyone would be if they were going to hurt someone I cared for, and I found no other way to protect that someone."
Flandre looks a little confused, but then Ail and Meiling both pat her on the head and the redhead says "I think you'll understand soon enough."
As they continue on their way to the shrine Flandre holds Meiling's and Ail's hands.
Once at the shrine they hear Reimu saying "aww~, what a lovely family! Sorry that I missed the wedding."
Meiling and Ail look at each other and quickly realize what Reimu meant, then their faces turn bright red; however Flandre looks at them very confused.
Reimu is sweeping leaves around her donation box and grinning at them, but then Flandre jumps to Reimu yelling "it's my red and white sis!"
A quick moment later, Meiling and Flandre go around the shrine to look around and admire a few things Ail and Reimu talk.
"So, you opened another gap... and to the village, for that matter" says Reimu in a low tone.
Ail nodes and replies "why do you guys insist it was me? If I had-."
Reimu stops him then and says "I know you and Yukari had this chat already; that day when you came back from the Moriya shrine."
Ail looks at Reimu very surprised, and then the shrine maiden tells him "I'm not an idiot Ail. I know you and Yukari were talking to each other through your minds. You should be able to control that ability as well; if you train enough of course."
Ail sits next to the donation box with a grim expression, so then Reimu sits beside him and asks "what did you two talk about?"
Ail, still looking very grim says "she did all the talking. I just listened. She said: By now you must know that you have powers very similar to mine. You are able to open gaps between barriers, but unlike me you lack the much needed experience. I could teach you, you know. Well, whatever, I'll leave that choice up to you. You are lucky, you know? If my friend Yuyuko didn't like you so much, I would have killed you right here and now, but if I did that she wouldn't speak to me again. Well, whatever. Take your time with that; you have more than enough time to make your choice. Oh yes, before I forget, your friend Kyo wants to go back home. If you don't do it, I might consider sending him back... but maybe I'll have a bit of fun and send him to a mountain top before sending him home~."
Reimu smiles and says "that's Yukari for you. You know, she usually doesn't lie when it comes to teasing others."
Ail lifts his head up and says "maybe I should return back home with Kyo, you know? I've been causing a lot of trouble around here. Not just for the Scarlet Devil Mansion, but..."
Reimu looks very surprised at his answer, but doesn't say anything.
By now the sun has set and is being replaced by a beautiful full moon, and looking at it Reimu says "oh yes, you better go inside. Keine wants to talk to you now that the full moon's out."
Ail looks at Reimu rather confused, then nods and complies.
When Ail enters the shrine he notices Keine is looking outside a window, looking straight at the rising moon.
He notices her dress and the highlights on her hair are now green and her hat is gone, replaced by two large horns, the left one adorned with a red bow, and on top of that she also had a soft-looking green tail.
She turns around and looks at Ail, who is blushing a bit, and then asks "surprised?"
Ail gulps then says "a little... You look cute, though."
Realizing what he just said the boy's face turns bright red while Keine giggles, blushing a bit as well, but then get serious again. "Ail, I am going to offer you... a choice."
Ail becomes serious as well and asks "a choice?"
For a second he thinks she is going to try to kill him, but thinks she would have already tried that some time ago.
Keine continues "while the full moon is out I have control over Gensokyo's history... I could rewrite yours and Kyo's history to make it as if you never set foot inside here."
Ail thinks for a moment. His face fills with doubt and fear. He doesn't want to leave, but maybe, if he forgets about Gensokyo; maybe that would be the best choice.
No incident with Flandre, no powers, no magic, no depressed Kyo.
He then asks her "what if you only rewrote Kyo's history?"
Keine shakes her head and says "You'll probably die when Remilia first attacks you. Maybe even before that. But think about it. Gensokyo will not have existed for either you or Kyo."
Ail ponders for a second and says "memories from the heart seldom vanish to thin air."
Keine looks very surprised while saying "you are most wise... perhaps this is a bad idea also. You are right. There is a possibility you, particularly you Ail, could remember everything."
Ail sighs and says "the offer is very tempting but..." he smiles as he continues "if we did that, Flandre would never get out of that room, none of us would have ever met, and it's probable that those two girls that knocked us in could be in mayor trouble, or dead if they were the ones that entered."
Keine looks at Ail very surprised as he continued "...and fate has a funny way of working. What if someone else... someone without control attacked Flandre, then what? What if Remilia goes berserk toward someone else? I am very thankful for the offer, but the risks are too high. Only one choice left."
Keine smiles at him as he continues "I'll have to learn to use my powers and abilities, so I can get Kyo and myself back home."
Ail's smile vanishes when he finishes.
Keine walks toward him and says "I think Kyo won't mind if you stayed behind... he knows it in his heart that this is your home now. Gensokyo itself has accepted you. You can now see spell cards and hear the declaration of use, and I am certain that some old things seem like new to you, correct?"
Ail nods and smiles, then Keine smiles back.
Outside the shrine Flandre and Meiling are ready to go back home.
The boy smiles at them and says "I'll go with you. Someone needs to explain Remilia and Sakuya about your late return."
Meiling and Flandre laugh, but suddenly a faint voice is heard and look away from the shrine.
"Cheeeen! CHEEENN! Where are you!?"
It's Ran, and she is crying and calling out for Chen when she spots Ail as soon as she reaches the top of the stairs, rushes to him, grabs him by his arms, and shakes him very violently while asking "have you seen Chen? The oni started shooting danmaku in the air when she was napping and she got scared, and now I can't FIND HER!"
After he stops seeing double the boy asks "maybe you should ask Reimu."
Ran yells "she's handling that crazy oni and some frog girl at the village, you have to help me!"
Suddenly, from the direction of the Forest of Magic Chen's call can be heard faintly. "Ran-sama~! Where are you~!?"
Without wasting a single second, Ran rushes at great speeds to where Chen's voice is coming from.
Ail looks at Meiling, who nods at him just before he asks "Flandre, will you help us find Chen?"
Flandre nods and says "let's go find her, big brother!"
Ail is a bit surprised and looks at Meiling, who just shrugs with a puzzled look.
When they arrive to the entrance of the Forest of Magic Meiling asks "are you sure you can see in there? I know humans can't see very well in the dark, so..."
The boy looks a little surprised and says "actually, I can see quite well. I can see quite far too."
As they head inside the forest, a gigantic orange fox youkai with two tails gets in their way and swipes its claws at Meiling.
She's sent flying against a large tree, knocking her out from the force of the impact, then before Ail is even able to move it flashes light directly into the boy's eyes to blind him, then swipes it's claws at him, sending him right next to Meiling.
Still blind and barely able to get up Ail yells "Flandre, run! Get help!"
Flandre looks at them both and calls for them. "Big brother, big sister; get up!"
The massive youkai looks at her and says "I'll come and deal with you soon dear; Right after I am done with your brother and sister," then runs to where Meiling and Ail are.
Ail, still blinded, tried to walk to where Flandre is, but the youkai simply sends him back with another swipe of its massive claw.
The beast opens its mouth to ready itself to eat Meiling and Ail in one bite, however it stops.
Flandre holds something in her hand as she says "I have the eye of your tail in my hands... leave them alone and I'll let you go!"
The youkai tries to turn around but Flandre clenches her hand, and the monster's left tail blows up, making the monster howl in pain, getting the attention of everyone at the village.
Suika and Reimu are the first to fly toward the source of the howl, followed shortly by Kyo, Keine and Mokou.
Suwako, who hovers above the houses, only complains "aww, over already?" then heads back home.
Back at the forest's entrance Ail is shouting "Flan!? Flandre, are you alright!?"
Flandre responds "I should be the one asking that! Can you see yet?"
The youkai turns to Flandre as Ail responds "just a little."
Flandre giggles and smiles as the massive youkai gets closer to her.
She yells "Ail, is big sister ok?"
Ail shouts back "she's just unconscious... Where's that fox demon?"
"You little MONSTER" screams the youkai as it continues to walk toward Flandre. "You blew up my tail! I am going to kill you for that... argh!"
Suddenly the beast drops to the ground, yelping and holding its head as best it can with its clawed paws, then Flandre asks "I have the eye of your head now. Are you going to leave us alone?"
The youkai slightly recovers and tries to bite Flandre, but she clenches her hand again and shouts a happy and cute "kyuun~" this time, making the monster's head blow.
Its body falls to the ground and slowly turns to ashes shortly afterwards.
Flandre heads to where Ail and Meiling are then kneels beside them while telling Ail she's fine.
Just a bit after, Meiling wakes up asking "what happened?"
Flandre giggles and says "I protected my big brother and sister, just like when they protected me!"
Meiling sits up mumbling "uh? wha-?" then Flandre hugs her tightly.
Just then, Remilia slowly flies down from a near-by tree and says "well, I was wondering when you two would be headed home, but it seems you were having too much fun here huh? Perhaps you'll go home tomorrow?"
Just as Remilia lands Ail gets up and kneels before her and says "I'm sorry, I asked them to help me here, so that's why they..."
Remilia interrupts him when saying "look, its fine. The important thing is you brought Patchy and Meiling back to me; and seems as though..." she looks at Flandre and smiles "... you have taught my young sister something very important today."
Flandre smiles widely then jumps at Remilia, hugs her tightly, then exclaims "onee-sama!"
By then Suika, Reimu and Kyo arrive, and then the oni shouts "WHOA! You guys killed this sick beast? Good one" and gives them a thumbs-up.
Just as Marisa, Keine and Mokou arrive Reimu asks "what happened here? Ail, Meiling, are you two alright?"
Flandre excitedly tells them what happened and how she beat that monster using her powers.
She then goes to Meiling and Ail, hugs them again for good measure, and then says "because someone needs to protect these two, right?"
Reimu again mockingly says "aww~, you guys sure make one cute little family!"
Flandre giggles while the still-blinded Ail and the dazed Meiling slightly blush, and then Kyo laughs so hard that everyone else joins in.
"Onee-sama... sis, can't we stay a little longer? I want to see the puppet show at the village!" asks Flandre, to which Remilia quietly nods.
Just as everyone leaves, Ail realizes something and exclaims "hey wait! What about Ran and Chen?"
From inside the forest comes Ran carrying a sleeping Chen, then sounding a little angry she says "I found Chen, thank you! She was inside this very messy house. Such a mess of books and junk all over the place easily makes that place a hazard!"
Marisa looks VERY grim as she asks "you... found her at my house?"
Ran looks at Marisa then says "oh, so that's your house? I knew I recognized the mess! Oh yes, I happen to have found one of my missing math books. Why was that in your house?"
Marisa doesn't waste another second and gets on her broom, then flies as fast as she can toward her house while still looking incredibly grim.
Back at the village everyone enjoys the rest of the festival.
Kyo and Suika almost succeed in forcing Ail to drink some sake, but Ail manages to escape just in time.
Chen and Flandre fall fast asleep right after Alice's puppet show, so Meiling, Remilia, Flandre, Ran and Chen leave the village a little earlier.
Ail, Suika, Kyo and Reimu are walking back to the shrine later that night.
Ail asks "hey Reimu, why didn't you hold the festival at the shrine?"
Suika answers "because Reimu said she didn't want to clean up after, and Kyo said 'me either' so we had it at the village instead."
Ail ponders for a second then bluntly says "that's too bad. It would have been good money for the shrine, but whatever."
Reimu stops walking, her eyes open widely, and then she looks at Ail and yells "crap... I forgot about that! Why didn't you remind me of that sooner?"
She then she grabs Kyo and shakes him while shouting "why didn't you say something!?"
She drops her arms down afterward, and then slouches as she walks toward the shrine in her pitiful pose.
Suika and Kyo, whom are behind Ail, look at each other and nod, then Kyo grabs Ail and pulls him backwards, and then Suika pours a little sake down his throat.
Ail jumps up as he holds his throat, and runs in circles while screaming "water, water! Give me WATER! My throat!"
He then drops the lantern he was holding and flies to the back of the shrine, then drinks as much water as he can from the lake at the back.
The next morning Ail wakes up and stumbles as he goes outside the shrine.
Suika and Kyo are having a staring contest, but stop as soon as they spot Ail, then the oni happily says "good morning Ail."
"Morning buddy... want some breakfast?" asks Kyo.
Ail places both hands over his mouth, turns pale, then green, then runs to the trees and bushes and then throws up.
Suika and Kyo, stare Ail's way and then Suika says "wow, he really IS weak against sake, isn't he?"
Kyo nods and only says "uh-huh, uh-huh".
For four days everything goes back to the way it was before the mess with the mansion; back when Ail and Kyo first entered Gensokyo; except now Ail flies to town and is asked to do heavier errands.
He's even visiting the Moriya Shrine various times, and every time he does Sanae gets in a really good mood; same as him.
Youmu has visited the Hakurei Shrine, and she and Kyo have had another sparring match, and of course Reimu has gotten really mad when they almost level the shrine.
Another constant visitor is Yuka, who keeps bringing more plants for Ail to revive, and Alice and Marisa also visit often, however their visits are quite normal.
Suika is still wearing Reimu's clothing; which has Reimu worried for some reason, and also, Sakuya has visited the shrine in order to consult something with Reimu and caused Kyo to lose it again at the sight of her; Even though she doesn't know, or doesn't WANT to know, she had him under her spell, and for some reason it seems he doesn't want to be free of it.
On the early morning on the fifth day Aya visits the shrine and is looking terribly grim.
"Aya? What are you doing here so early?" asks Reimu, while sitting on the shrine's porch while drinking her tea.
Aya gets startled and stammers "a, err... Reimu, how are you? Err... have... have you seen Ail around?"
Reimu looks at her directly in the eyes then says "calm down... you're acting as though you were about to do something really bad, but you don't want to, but you have to."
Aya's face turns ghostly white, slowly followed by her skin, then someone pokes her from behind, making her jump and shriek loudly.
"Whoa... talk about being stressed. Are you alright?"
It was Ail, and Aya rapidly gets up and bows while saying "good morning, good morning. Let's cut to the chase... how about a small race?"
Aya is shaking a bit and doesn't notice Reimu and Ail grinning evil-like at each other.
Reimu nods and Ail says "why sure. That sounds like a lot of fun! From here to where?"
Aya perks up and says "alright then! We start from here, head to the Moriya Shrine, go down to the village, and then come back here again!"
Ail ponders, then nods and says "sounds great. Let's begin, then!"
They both get set to start their race, then Reimu, very calmly says "ready set go..."
Aya and Ail look at Reimu with disbelief, then at each other, and then lunge into the air at great speeds.
They are evenly matched while flying at amazing speeds. They are right above the waterfall that leads to the Moriya Shrine already.
Aya stops there while looking very sad, so Ail stops and gets closer to her with worry on his face.
"Hey, what's the matter? We're in the middle of a race!" he asks the tengu, but then suddenly from behind him Momiji impales him with her sword.
Aya, almost crying says "I'm sorry, but we were ordered to kill you... I'm so sorry."
She places the palm of her hand on his chest then shoots her danmaku directly at him, blasting him from the skies.
His blood showers down to the waterfall and the trees while Aya and Momiji cry and hug each other after realizing what they have done.
They suddenly realize that the blood has turned into cotton, and that Ail's body had turned into fabric. Aya and Momiji are now shaking in fear.
"Miss Aya, what have we done?" asks Momiji while trembling alongside Aya who responds "what the hell was he?"
Ail comes out from under some trees and is looking very casual with an apple he has just bought from the Aki sisters, and after taking a bite from it he shouts from the ground "hey, what exactly are you two doing?"
When Aya and Momiji see he's alive and well, they celebrate for a bit, but then suddenly attack him with so many bullets he is bound to get hit, however the trees absorb most of the shots, and again, still looking casually at them, he shouts "what exactly are you two trying to do?"
This time both Aya and Momiji lunge directly toward him; Momiji pointing her sword straight at Ail's face while Aya aims her maple fan at him.
He throws the apple up in the air, gets out of the way just in time to avoid Momiji's sword, then spins out of Aya's way, making her crash against a tree.
He grabs the apple from the air, takes on last bite and throws it at Aya, knocking her down.
After both tengu are recovering, the boy gets close to Aya and again he asks "what are you two trying to do?"
From behind, Momiji quietly tries to slash him, however he ducks just in time, kicks the sword away, then backs away fast, just as Aya starts shooting danmaku at him.
Aya's danmaku misses miserably while she, almost crying, says "we got direct orders from our leader to terminate you. It's nothing personal, but we cannot disobey orders!"
She rushes toward Ail alongside Momiji, and just as they strike they realize they are attacking air, and then from behind them, Ail says "well, slowpokes like you could never hope to catch me... let alone 'terminate' me."
Without turning around Aya stands up straight and the atmosphere around her turns thick, then in a very serious and angry tone of voice she says "what... did you just call me?"
Ail calmly looks at the tengu reporter and mockingly says "oh my. Did I strike a raw nerve?"
Aya turns around; her face is red with rage, her eyes are on fire, and she is clenching that fan of hers so tight it's bound to break any second.
"You punk!" shouts Aya. "You want to see fast, do you? Momiji, stand down... he's mine!"
Momiji looks at Aya and quietly says "but Miss Aya, don't you realize he's just mocking-"
The crow girl loudly yells "I SAID STAND DOWN!" and Momiji ducks and covers herself, lowering her ears and hiding her tail between her legs.
Aya lunges at Ail moving at much higher speeds than before, however Ail dodges her attack just in time.
Aya gets furious, but on her next pass she stops and realizes the boy has her fan, and He is looking at it curiously while saying "wow... looks like a leaf, but it's quite solid. Oh..."
He looks at the angry tengu girl and asks "you want this?" and then tosses the fan back to her.
Aya stomps hard on the ground with her left foot and pulls out a spell card just as she catches her fan.
"Illusionary Dominance!" she darkly shouts at the top of her lungs. "AYAYAYA!"
She suddenly starts flying high and at such speeds she looks like a red beam of light.
Momiji is now trembling behind a tree while watching the fight while Ail looks up and sees a lot of little green shards heading his way slowly.
At first he thinks nothing of it, however more and more shards appear and make it really hard for him to dodge anything.
"Crap" he says softly as four or five shards land on him, one of them landing on his hit box.
Various red tabs with the letter "P" on them fly up, then slowly back down to the spot where they boy was.
Aya smirks and comes down, then gets close to him with an evil grin in her face and says "now die you snail!"
Just as Aya prepares another wave of danmaku at point-blank range, Reimu pops from out of nowhere and holds Aya by the shoulder, and with a glint in her eyes and says "hold it, you idiot!"
Ail sits on the ground and pokes his danmaku burns while Reimu explains "I went to the tengu headquarters to ask why they wanted you to terminate Ail. Funny thing, they all looked at me as if I were crazy, and so I explained the situation."
Aya and Momiji both look with great surprise and the crow girl asks "wait, you knew!?"
"We both did" replies Reimu.
Ail gets up and says "if it was meant to be a secret, then you're not very good at keeping those 'a secret.' We suspected something the second you came to the shrine looking so nervous."
Reimu continues "so while you two were having your little race I took the liberty to coming here directly and talk to Tenma. You completely misunderstood the orders."
She quickly hands Aya a piece of paper which the tengu girl reads it out loud. "You idiots, we told you to terminate a CONTRACT with the half youkai that lives in the FOREST, not to terminate the half youkai in the SHRINE! We will discuss this matter after you are done with your REAL errand."
Aya and Momiji look very ashamed of themselves, and look at each other in disbelief.
Momiji shouts "Miss Aya~, you weren't listening again!"
Aya lowers her head and drops to the ground, then bangs her fist next to herself while crying "don't say it like that!"
Aya and Momiji apologize to Ail almost a hundred times, and the boy of course accepts their apologies with a smile.
Above them, a very tired-looking Moon Rabbit is flying toward the village from the Moriya Shrine's direction; for some odd reason; and is carrying a large brown backpack.
"Why did I come here in the first place?" Reisen asks herself after sighing loudly. "I don't even remember how I got here. I better hurry or master will be angry again."
After almost falling down from exhaustion she quickly recovers and says "ah... this is so heavy, I better fly lower just in case I fall."
Without realizing it, a vial full of indigo-colored liquid falls from one of the backpack's pockets and drops straight down on Ail's head.
He rubs his head with both his hands and runs around in a circle while whimpering in a panic attack.
When he stops he notices Aya is chuckling while looking at him, and so he sounds annoyed as he says "that's not funny, that hurt!"
Reimu spots half of the vial on the ground near him and says "uh-oh" then Ail complains "argh, my hair is wet with something. Uhh... I'm feeling... a bit strange."
His body suddenly shrinks to that of the size of a small child, his ears vanish and are replaced by furry ears just like Momiji's; although his are brown like his own hair; and then a brown hairy tail pops just below his back, and his eyes widen and turn beady. Ail has now turned into half a dog.
He looks at Reimu, who is completely shocked, and then at Aya and Momiji, who look equally shocked, and asks "what are you all looking at?"
Ail realizes his voice sounds squeaky, and so he casually asks "what just happen to me?"
Momiji and Aya's noses start bleeding as they both shout "SO CUUUUTE!" then run at Ail and start petting him and cuddling him.
Reimu looks a little shocked still, and then looks at the half of the vial in her hand as if wondering if it has the answers.
From behind some trees a little black ball flies aimlessly and asks "is that a puppy~?" and then crashes against a tree.
To be continued...
Characters, scenario and spell cards all belong to ZUN -Team Shanghai Alice-
Ail, Kyo and "Metal and Fire Sign Dragon's Last Breath!" spell card were created by Willie G.R. (Any similarities are strictly coincidental.)
JUN 25 2009
Written by
Willie G.R.
-Updated JUN 3 2013 by Willie G.R.-